“Author Archive”
What can I tell you? It was a dog club meeting. Blah, blah, blah… As the old saying goes, everyone has an opinion and most of them… well never mind. So we were discussing the Welcome Reception for the judges ad nauseam; the room, the food, the wine, the signage, the decorations, the size of the tables. Finally, I looked at a couple of the biggest complainers and said what I believe (I always tell the truth because that is the way my Mother raised me). “I don’t mean to be rude, but it is not about you. It’s not about the show chair, the photographer, the super or any of the committee members. It’s about the judges. It is a Welcome Event for them.” The reply left me speechless.
August 13th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Editorial,Featured | Read More »
It continues to be extremely important to not repeat fake news. Show information should be disseminated by the show-giving club. Only if an authorized show committee member asks to post information about their show should others post or repeat information about a cluster. At this point, I strongly recommend going directly to the show chair as opposed to looking up information on the AKC website. Information on the website has been confusing and has caused people to conclude that shows are cancelled when they are not. The Canine Chronicle show calendar is a great resource to refer to in these “fluid” times. We do our best to get our site updated as soon as official information is made available.
August 12th, 2020 | Posted in Featured | Read More »
A few weeks ago, a guy I know called, more or less out of the blue, to ask if I might be free for lunch that week. I said, “It’s possible.” and added, since the guy is a CPA, “What do you have in mind?” He said he wanted to talk with me about getting a hunting dog because he knew I’d bred, trained and hunted with both retrievers and pointing breeds for more years than I care to admit. He then added the magic words, “I’m buying.” That sealed the deal for two reasons: First, it would be a violation of the journalists’ credo to turn down a free lunch. Secondly, I’ve known this particular CPA for a number of years and I can count the number of times I’ve seen him pick up a check for any meal on the fingers of one hand. To describe him as “frugal” would require a complete redefinition of the word. So, it was with both some amusement and a considerable amount of bemusement that I headed into the lunch meeting, knowing as I did that over the years, he had seemed perfectly content to hunt over other people’s dogs thus sparing himself the expense of actually keeping one.
August 9th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Editorial,Featured | Read More »
Following a trail certainly applies to breeds in FCI Group 6 – Scenthounds, Leash (scent) Hounds and Related Breeds – that possess a great passion for game and rely on their keen noses and sense of detection.
In Europe, different names are used for scent hounds, such as chien courant (France), Bracke (Germany, Austria), Laufhund (Switzerland) and brak (Netherlands).
Various old European hound breeds share the same history as old French hounds or other breeds that have vanished: they became extinct or merged into one of today’s breeds.
August 9th, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Editorial,Featured | Read More »
Therefore, it’s amazing to realize the AKC’s first skirmish on this front was quick and clear. Of course that was way, way back in 1924, and AKC had a unique advantage that time around. Its president, John Emmons de Mund M.D., had already been around the block with AKC and lawsuits.
August 8th, 2020 | Posted in Dog Show History,Featured,Remembering Our Past? | Read More »
What did I do this past week/weekend?? I went to a dog show!!!! I have to admit I was a bit edgy about going to my first show in a long time; one that turned out to be the largest cluster of the year thus far, and by a large margin! Anyone who has been to the Steel Valley Cluster in Canfield, Ohio, knows that one of the things it is known for is the “iffy” weather.
August 5th, 2020 | Posted in Featured | Read More »
Quite often when one participates in, or overhears, a conversation concerning the pedigreed dog the word ‘correct’ is seemingly used with great abandon. It has now apparently become one of those elements in our language which we employ with considerable frequency but yet do we oftentimes really consider what we mean when we use it and, as a result, is it always applied in proper context? Are we always aware of how it should be defined? Do we ever qualify it with a follow-up; correct in what sense, for what purpose? Has it now, perhaps, become so loosely and cursorily thrown in so as to lose its potency and intended meaning? Are we compromising a certain connotation here when we use it too casually?
August 1st, 2020 | Posted in Editorial,Featured,Uncategorized | Read More »
Within the judging community, knowing when to stop is for the most part related to either health or age. One’s inherent ability to pass judgment, given the subjective nature of the process, is seldom an issue unless, that is, a judge’s procedure is called into question and subsequently found to be flawed. At the same time,
August 1st, 2020 | Posted in Current Articles,Editorial,Featured | Read More »
Congratulations to the fancy as a whole for showing that we, as a community, can do what it takes to carry on and have dog shows safely.
July 29th, 2020 | Posted in Featured | Read More »
First, let me dispose of a couple of things. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to win. It’s always fun and it provides a little ego boost to boot. But, there’s a fine line between being competitive and overly competitive, between winning when it counts and when no one’s counting.
July 26th, 2020 | Posted in Editorial,Featured | Read More »
